Showing posts with label nfc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nfc. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 January 2013

MomoLondon: Demo Night 2013

Another fun demo night from Mobile Monday London. Some new ideas and some old — you never know which ones are going to stick!

My bets are on Vyclone and Critical Arc…

Blue Badge Style

Fiona Jarvis & Kishan Gupta @bluebadgestyle

  • a guide for the discerning less able
  • app available for iOS: Blue Badge Style
  • graduated from the Mobile Monday & UCL Mobile Academy
    • (it’s really great! sign up now! :-))
  • social media advisor suggested:
    • video of app to attract people to download
    • RSS feed in app
  • added TTS (but not voiceover?)
  • got 1000 downloads in Nov (PR & press) + 300/month afterwards

Boss Level - Scavengers

Nick Brown @boss_level

http://playscavengers.com

  • game based solely in HTML5
  • aimed at PC, mobiles, tablets & smart TVs
  • want same control system across everything
    • up down left right & select - lowest common denominator
    • fixed 720x720 resolution at the moment (will need to change for different devices)
  • closed alpha at the moment
  • aiming for Kickstarter to raise profile
  • cross between xcom & worms
  • freemium business model with in-game purchases
  • also thinking about a store for game assets
    • there’s a game editor that allows you to completely customise levels and characters
  • would rather not have in-game adverts, but depends on the eyeballs
  • currently two developers

Connecthings

http://www.connecthings.com/

  • NFC tags for street furniture
  • 1500 tags displayed in Strasbourg
  • real-time transport info
  • integrated with cycle info too
  • also has event & POI database
  • POI tags show POI info first, transport tags show transport info first
  • tags have QR codes too
  • license the platform to municipalities
    • though not sure how well it would go down with councils that already have their own portals….

Critical Arc

http://www.criticalarc.com/

  • previous company led security & surveillance for Olympics
  • security & safety in large open spaces
    • e.g. universities
  • define SafeZones where there is a response team available
  • security team have an app to see a situational view of the campus
  • free app to call for help & get notified
  • have created a platform for sharing location and situational information
  • universities are first market
  • no tracking in the background for general public
  • security officers are tracked in the background
  • Wi-Fi positioning covers off GPS issues
  • can report on security staff location — heatmaps etc, can be used to actively plan response

Decibel Analytics

http://www.decibeltechnology.com/analytics/ @decibelanalytic

  • actionable analytics
  • object maps, which integrate with elements on page, to show which are actually being clicked
  • attention maps — shows which areas of page are actually viewed
    • i.e. where is the fold for all your customers…?
  • which content is contributing most to goals & revenue generation
  • can filter by device and by incoming source
  • adding A/B testing soon

Men’s Fitness UK iPad app

Paul Cooper, Design Director, Dennis Publishing @dmfcoops

iPad app: Men’s Fitness UK

  • COPE — create once, publish everywhere
  • Drupal CMS with responsive design & native elements
  • started with The Week (iPhone & iPad)
    • takes one person one day to lay out
    • less than 100Mb an issue
  • now done a monthly magazine — more content
  • Drupal 7 & responsive is a complex thing
  • Adobe DPS takes over a week to lay out an issue of EVO
  • content producers (photogs etc) struggled a little with responsive design, but get training
  • can preview the issue before generating the app
  • looking at licensing the system to other parties
  • developing a system like InDesign that outputs responsive HTML

GO!Enterprise

Globo plc - Enterprise Mobility in a BYOD world

http://goenterpriseserver.com

  • deploy access to back office systems in a secure manner
  • no need for mobile device managment
  • client app available from standard app stores
  • three products:
    • office — point and go
    • mobilizer — development for custom enterprise apps (cross-platform)
    • reach — make apps for customers

Trademob - mobile click fraud protection

Adrienne Gauldie @adriennegauldie (ag@trademob.com)

http://www.trademob.com/

  • did a study in june (6m clicks)
    • 22% accidental (< 0.1%)
    • 10% botnet & hijacked clients
    • 8% server-side fraud
  • can see it from data…
    • e.g. in-app clicks from non-mobile user agents
  • don’t get fraudulent clicks from publishers with real customers
  • building a blacklist of dodgy publishers
  • 100 people in company

Vyclone

http://vyclone.com/ @vyclone

Download the app for iPhone

  • wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make a single video from all the angles at a rock concert…?
  • combine multiple vids in one
    • had 200 people filming a Jason Mraz concert
    • 150 people at Ed Sheeran in Hammersmith Apollo
  • business model:
    • lots of interest from music industry
    • want to get footage and release it to fans for behind the scenes
  • copyright: music industry recognise that this is already happening
    • now they get access to video, so a win-win
    • customers can choose to keep video private, or share with everyone
  • app is winning lots of awards!

AudioSnaps

Marc Sallent, We Choose Fun

http://audiosnaps.com

  • record 5 secs of ambient sound while taking a picture
  • JPEG + MP3 = JPEG! (plus extensions)
    • all devices can still show it
    • web site can play audio with just one line of javascript
  • why not just take a short video?
    • want to capture a moment, not tell a story

Chirp

Geraint, Animal Systems

http://chirp.io

Download the app for iPhone

  • send small amounts of data using sound
  • want to release an API for third parties
  • have an arduino that can chirp
  • teach the machines to sing!

Catch-up with last year’s demos

Two of last year’s Demo Night presenters returned to give us an update. See my notes from last year.

Ko-Su

http://ko-su.com @kosumobile

mobile learning for everyone

  • demoed last year, one month pre-release
  • been accepted into BBC Worldwide Labs
  • material created in lots of countries around the world
  • now “officially out of pre-revenue” (?)

Six-Three

https://six3.tv/

Simon Frost, CTO @spli

  • started out as a private closed network — a messaging thing
  • sports stars started using it to keep in touch with their public, but also to communicate with their private street marketing teams
  • made it onto WAYRA Telefonica business incubator

Thursday, 5 July 2012

MomoLondon: Mobile Payments

I arrived a few minutes late and missed the beginning of Dave Birch’s introduction, but I gather it involved Star Trek and early Visa commercials…

Dave has posted his own summary of his introduction which was all about needing a better story to tell about mobile payments. He reckons we don’t have a really good narrative to get people excited about the subject, and that makes it harder to get the future technologies more widespread.

Some other points he raised were:

  • Keuffel & Esser (world’s largest manufacturer of slide rules) commissioned a report about the future in 1967. It was amazingly accurate apart for the bit where they went out of business 5 years later due to the invention of the calculator…
  • Facebook have money transmitter licenses in 38 out of 50 states — a good start, but not really useful if you need to pay someone and they go on holiday to a state that’s not covered…
  • In EU there was a regulatory barrier and now there isn’t — arrival of non-banks will be a big game change
  • UK Universal Credit system — payments won’t be by cheque any more
    • going for prepaid accounts
    • £2bn per month will be going through the new system
    • a big opportunity…

He then challenged the panel to come up with some good narratives for digital, mobile money. My usual summarised notes are below. Dave did a good job of making the evening interesting to listen to, but we didn’t really come away with any new stories to tell. As Margaret Gold tweeted later, the most we talked about was buying coffee…

Panel

Nathan Cushnie: O2’s Mobile Money

  • what is the user case?
  • just payment as utility is not very exciting
  • discovering deals, then paying directly
  • consolidating payments with other financial things — the rest of the wallet

Iain Herd: PayPal

  • what is the value for the merchants?

Russell Sheffield: paythru

  • has to be seamless, global & ubiquitous
  • fit the nuances of different cultures
  • Turkey have 10-12 merchant accounts for each merchant — they choose which to use
    • in Turkey, terminals are provided by the banks for free so this is possible

Jennifer Payne: Ponti’s (retailer)

  • not enough benefits for the retailer
  • want the experience to be user friendly, social, tie in to marketing
  • want a little hub and want it to be handed to us

Masabi - train tickets

  • merchants are terrified that they’ll install the wrong hardware (betamax)
  • masabi trying to provide several different versions all the time
  • what about a platform that will support multiple systems?

Are we just waiting to clear the logjams before Apple tells us what to do?

  • RS: it is complex - have to make sure it’s secure and keeps customer confidence
    • better not to let the consumer decide
  • IH: most players not looking at the whole journey
    • Apple good at making things work end to end
    • good at simplicity
  • JP: so many people creating different wallets
    • do I wait for them? do I make my own app?
  • NC: don’t want the consumer to have to choose technology

Audience experiences of purchasing on a phone?

  • used an SMS to buy using a local currency (Brixton pounds)
    • strong community narrative which was nothing to do with payment
  • starbucks app — did what it needed to do
    • very simple
  • been in a shop and got pissed off: used Amazon to buy direct
  • IH: used Pizza Express payment app
    • audience: fairly simple
    • retailer had no difficulty using it
  • audience: bought something in Macy’s
    • frustrated that had to take the phone out of his pocket
  • audience: paid with NFC on iPhone at Starbucks
  • RS: all down to the customer — the moment they have to think about the transaction, the interruption can stop the payment
  • DGW: the goal with the phone is to make things better
  • DGW: no good experiences involved PayPal, Barclays, etc
  • IH: need big companies involved to get reach — all previous mentions were small scale

Wandering through the building and paying

Do we even need to get our phone out of our pocket? Is it better just to walk around and have things credited to our account automatically?

  • Ben Whitaker, Masabi: femto cells on trains/buses… could just pick up people on the journey by being there
    • what about people on the bus stop?
    • track people across the journey…
  • PayPal Here/Square: check in to a merchant
    • next time you’re in the shop, the POS terminal shows your face
    • you can pay just by walking up to the till and talking
    • loyalty scheme — offers targeted at retail customers
    • POS machine shows how many times you’ve been in the store, what your last purchase was…
  • what does the mobile channel deliver?
  • is just leaving your wallet behind enough of a change?
  • JP: people go to a restaurant for the customer experience
    • just ordering on your phone is a lonely experience…
    • want engagement as opposed to payment
    • if it comes to payment later then that’s good

mobile should do more

  • payments going through to expenses automatically?
  • want someone to help me budget & track my spending…
  • NC: narrative needs to be bigger than just a transaction
    • accounts departments won’t accept electronic receipts at the moment…
  • RS: NatWest doing moneyless accounts in last couple of months
    • been that way for 15 years in South Africa because banks & mobile operators working together
  • DGW: Orange & NatWest did a trial in 1996… unfortunately not much has happened since then

Is it really just a squabble about who owns the customer?

  • IH: when working at a mobile operator, looking far too much at the commercial model than at what the consumer actually wanted

Risk - mobile payments should be more secure, and therefore cheaper?

  • IH: very large percentage of PayPal is risk management
    • when talking with partners, that’s one of the main things they bring to the table
  • however, PayPal’s risk management seems to involve offloading a load of risk onto the merchant — see the various articles about PayPal seizing and freezing accounts

What about identity on mobile?

  • RS: single sign-on
  • NC: not really looked at identity
  • IH: PayPal has less accounts than Facebook, but they’re all verified
  • DGW: if you figure out identity, then payment falls out in the wash…

What about payment with non-currency, e.g. selling personal information?

  • despite the promise of a new idea, this question didn’t get much of an answer…

Why can’t I take the phone round a supermarket and scan products as I go myself?

  • NC: O2 Wallet does include a bar-code scanner
    • can scan a virtual/digital barcode poster shop
    • next step would be paying for real things

Don’t want Starbucks & McDonalds — I want independent merchants

  • Not just taking the payment utility, want community and local interest

Replicating existing stories hasn’t worked - successes are those that create new markets

  • “What frustrates me is that those electronic, mobile transactions don’t appear any different in my bank statement”

Working backwards from the future

  • NC: consumer makes a gesture; consolidate offer & loyalty points; merchant gathers data

Payment of medium sized amounts between people (e.g. £600 for doing something)

  • PayPal is not legal tender — cannot force someone to be paid by PayPal…
  • the revolution is on the customer acquisition side, never on the usage
  • IH: PayPal focused on getting to Facebook size
  • it’s only a matter of time until you can send money via Facebook
  • audience: if you get a parking ticket, pay it by PayPal — it totally confuses them!
  • want to pay a builder, who pays his contractors, who use the money immediately to go down to the pub — cash is the only accepted mechanism right now
  • DGW: refuses to pay cash as he refuses to take part in the black economy!
    • part of the story could be that you’ll pay less tax if you pay by mobile :-)
  • IH: can give people prepaid PayPal credit cards — they can withdraw cash from an ATM

What about beggars? Small transactions to unknown people

  • DGW: contactless terminals by busker pitches in the underground set at £1
  • DGW: Not a problem he’s trying to solve…

Should I have the right to make an anonymous payment?

  • IH: that’s where PayPal came from
  • Data that goes with the payment that seems to the root of the business models we were talking about earlier…

Would it be good for Ponti’s to get rid of cash?

  • JP: it’s not on our radar — all that matters is that we get paid and the customer is happy

What is the market asking PayPal for?

  • in UK fashion group pay by barcode
  • all German shops close on a Sunday, but can put panels (with QR codes) in windows so people can shop online when you’re closed

Is showrooming a problem for retail (comparison shop and then buy online)?

  • JP: Not particularly true in a restaurant…

Wrap up:

  • need to look bigger than just replicating credit cards
  • In 1967 the USA banks thought it would take at least until the 1980s to get rid of cheques… Money changes very slowly

Announcements

  • Samsung Smart App Challenge - $4m worth of prizes
  • 19th July — Smart Accessibility Workshop: 4-7pm
    • what to think about when designing apps on mobile
    • already a third full
  • 24th July — Mobile Apps Marketing

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Over The Air 2011: Stolen and lost phones - can mobile phone applications help with the problem?

Detective Sergeant Andy Williams

  • National Mobile Crime Unit – based in Notting Hill
  • Criminals stealing to order
  • Cops are not the most technologically advanced people – when Andy wants something done, he asks his children…
  • in 2001, 45% street crime linked to mobiles
    • this was from the British Crime Survey – not reported crime, but surveyed
  • current stats:
    • 9.7% of all UK crime accounted for by theft of a handset
    • 60% of mobile phones stolen in personal robberies are iPhones or BlackBerrys
      • not just the phone is high value, but the data on the phones
    • avg 8,000 phones stolen every month in london

what happens to stolen phones?

  • used until blocked (by IMEI)
    • IMEI blocking works across UK, 60% of Europe, plus North & South America coming in soon
    • but main export markets are North Africa (mainly Algeria) & Romania
  • some handsets are vulnerable to having their IMEI changed (so can be unblocked)
  • phones used for parts (broken screens, etc)
  • phones used for non-phone functions – mp3 player, etc
  • blocking:
    • operator will block SIM
    • will also request IMEI to be blocked
  • individual can install a theft tracking app, but police would need a signed warrant
    • police can’t monitor 8,000 phones a month
  • IMEIs are personal data in Germany
  • phones offered on eBay, shown as blocked or no signal

immobilise – national property register

http://immobilise.com

  • if device is registered with immobilise, police don’t need to go through RIPA
  • can put anything with a serial number on there
  • can check on people’s phones when stop people on the street
  • private company set up and operated in conjunction with the police

formation of NMPCU

  • initially front line - reducing robbery
  • expanded to all acquisitive crime
  • working at all levels of crime - local through to organised
  • now an offence to offer to reprogram a phone (change the IMEI)

Police Central eCrime Unit

  • trying to combat cyber-criminals
  • looking at denial of service attacks, etc
  • front line police notoriously poor at dealing with cyber crime
  • but no law enforcement agency that specialises in all areas of cyber crime
  • most expertise is in the forensic area
  • judicial system is not set up to deal with cyber crime
  • judicial boundaries don’t help – if online connections are not in UK…
  • recently starting up new kind of officer: Covert Internet Investigator
  • not very many across the country

Case study: organised criminals targeting music events

  • following same bands the whole time
    • bands with mosh pits…
  • Download 2010: 3 people found with 140 phones buried under their tent

Security & new mobile tech

  • Man City gave 20 season ticket holders their tickets on their phone
  • if someone steals your phone, they have access to your wallet, your ticket, your flat…
  • NFC requirements requested by police:
    • PIN required for all payments – not gonna happen!
      • at the moment, 5 payments of £10 until a PIN required
    • capture IMEI during transactions
      • possible but not gonna happen
    • compulsory registration with financial institution
      • may happen

key areas

  • registration at point of sale
  • carphone warehouse register 25,000 phones a day at Xmas
  • only 4 in 10 PIN lock their phone
    • significant barrier
  • locating devices post theft
    • works ok, but not great – won’t work if someone goes into a block of flats
  • identification of a SIM change post theft

checkMEND

http://www.recipero.com/checkmend

  • can find out if an IMEI is stolen
  • some operators run this service for free
  • but otherwise may cost £1 a shot

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Google I/O 2011

Some brief notes on the Google I/O 2011 keynote this afternoon… It started kind of dull with Android stats that were pretty good but still seemed to be catching up on Apple, then gradually got better and better.

Google really does want Android to be “one OS everywhere” (I guess running “one web” webapps…) and the UI is improving. I look forward to the media content coming across to countries other than the USA, though the lack of any mention of music or movie labels leaves me in some doubt as to when this will happen. The presentations neatly glossed over the time involved in syncing music and movies between devices and the online service — even on a home wired network the data would take a long time to upload. And there was no mention of syncing between devices on the same LAN like Dropbox either.

The big news for me, however, was the accessories and android@home. By making it so cheap to add hardware integration with Android devices, there could be a real explosion of new products and the home automation market could finally break out of eye-wateringly expensive or home hacker territory. I’m really looking forward to more detail on android@home, but there’s nothing released yet…

android updates

  • widgets can now be stretched
    • scrollable -> resizeable (just change XML)
  • android can now be a USB host
    • keyboards, mice, game controllers
  • google tv market open for devs this summer
    • will be based on android 3.1
  • icecreamsandwich coming Q4
    • advanced UI
    • APIs to help scale UI
    • action bar able to reconfigure itself for available space

media

  • movies and books now available through android market
    • can watch on web or on android device (e.g. android TV…)
    • seems to be US only (like Music)
  • google music
    • cache music recently played
    • can “pin” music just like on movies to make available offline
    • downloads in background
    • 20,000 songs can be added to library
    • free in beta…
    • new music app works with android 2.2 and above

hardware

  • new devices will receive latest updates for 18 months after first launch
    • (if the hardware allows)
    • guaranteed to come through reasonably quickly
  • android open accessory
    • plug in an accessory
    • phone gets taken to app (or to android market to download it)
    • supports USB now and bluetooth in future
    • hardware design toolkit based on Arduino
  • android @ home
    • android @ home framework
    • new low cost connectivity protocol for non-wifi devices
    • why not existing??
    • partnering with several industry players
    • LED lights & switches
    • tungsten demo with NFC chips in CDs cannot work unless Google get record label deals…

new devices

  • Samsung 10.1 tab: 720p, 565g, 10.1”
    • lighter than iPad 2, at least as powerful…
    • just waiting for better interface

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

MomoLondon: Demo Night

View from the top

A brilliant evening in a beautiful venue, with a fantastic view to round off the evening. Demo nights are one of the things that makes Mobile Monday great. 14 different presentations, most of which involving hands-on demonstrations and all for real, shipping, mobile software with plenty of ideas to inspire. Sure, some of the apps weren’t exactly new (ReVoice presented way back in 2007) and not all were particularly exciting, but with so many people presenting their ideas, you’re sure to pick up some valuable nuggets.

Here’s the presentations, with the tidbits that caught my attention:

Do Tank Studios: Photo Fit iPhone app

Adam Hoyle

Take a photo of several people and mix them up like a game of consequences: a forehead from Fred, the eyes of Isabelle, the nose of Norbert, the mouth of Millie and the chin of Charles. The app lets you take photos or source them from your photo album, and line them up using basic eye and mouth alignment. Shake to mix up further, or slide to choose your mix. Simple and fun.

Adam runs a design agency and this app is a hobby app to show that they can produce iPhone apps. They’ve mostly been focussing on a fashion app, which is currently waiting for app store approval. They were going to make Photo Fit free, but there was already an app on the store that did something similar for £1.20, so they put it in the store for the next price point down. Apparently they’ve made enough to have a few beers.

Total Hotspots

Alex Housley @ahousley

  • Global Wirefree Community — help people find the best WiFi connectivity
  • partnered with Rummble in October 2008
  • iPhone app rummbles to twitter and Total Hotspots website (using Yahoo GeoPlanet to show surroundings and identify location name)
  • had a few thousand downloads from iPhone store at £3 each
  • also working with Microsoft
  • Alex worked at multimap for a while while they were being taken over by Microsoft
  • Total Hotspots’ database includes data direct from service providers
  • cf. WeFi: client connection software, that has background app that does WiFi collection as you walk down the street — picks up personal and corporate wifi (mostly secured)

Audioboo

Mark Rock

“as used by Stephen Fry…”

  • geolocation embedded in the meta-data of the audio
  • will be releasing API in about 3 weeks
  • business plan:
    • there’ll always a free version
    • plus version: £2.95 a month
      • longer recording time
      • queuing recording
    • pro version: for companies
      • just signed first customer: British Library
  • community auditing of inappropriate content
    • had to put this in place before the app was accepted in the iPhone store

Artilium

Dave Hodder

  • software for mobile network operators
  • previously solely in Belgium
  • acquired location company that uses app on SIM or device to identify accurate location using nearby cell strengths as well as current cell tower location (TILS)
  • in London tends to be sub 100 metres accuracy
    • lower resolution outside built-up areas
  • work with mobile operators — have their mast data
    • also drive around the area
    • improve with usage too
  • gets better accuracy than Google Maps for Mobile (using cell ID only)
  • end customer is mobile operators
  • will probably implement GSM ONE API when it gets more developed (i.e. has more event-based APIs)

Proxama

James Norris

  • payWave credit cards on an NFC phone
  • working with MasterCard
  • can change PIN over the net (combined with the secure element)
  • they use J2MEPolish for their JavaME apps
  • integrates with secure element in SIM
  • person to person payment is not supported with existing terminals & framework
  • upcoming NFC devices:
    • Nokia 6216 — has secure element on SIM
    • Samsung & LG also coming out this year (also USIM-based)

OOKL

Dan Phillips

  • mobile learning service
  • clients are schools & cultural venues
    • have 25 venues signed up
  • provide hardware and software
    • old Nokia phones that you can buy for £50
  • every object in the physical environment is labelled with a shortcode (two-letter code)
  • type it in on the phone to see and hear content
  • can write why collecting it
  • find out who else collected it
  • take photos or record audio to annotate it
  • all info collected is uploaded to a shared space to consider later

Synchro Arts’ ReVoice Karaoke

Jeff Bloom

As mentioned above, these guys have been around for several years now selling essentially the same thing, but the demo always gets a laugh… Jeff sings horrendously out of tune and badly timed into the ReVoice system (here an iPhone app), then uploads his “masterpiece” and has it retuned by the ReVoice server. The result is perfectly in tune and in time and still recognisably Jeff.

  • now have an iPhone app
    1. record yourself
    2. gives scores for accuracy
    3. uploads, corrects, downloads to iPhone and shares online
  • can try out on http://singtone.com
  • aim is to send it to someone else as your ringtone
    • when you call, they hear your voice
    • At the moment, this doesn’t work with the iPhone, as you currently have to pay Apple to make a ringtone (unless you hack something…)

Masabi Rail Ticketing

Ben Whitaker (getting married this weekend— congratulations!)

Ben Smith (of the Really Mobile Project) recorded video presentation; may also be on Slideshare (old version)

  • Working with ATOS Origin (heathrow express & national express)
  • only 12% of rail tickets sold on the internet — most bought at station
  • masabi’s implementation has no sign up — no usernames or passwords
  • mostly offline…
  • for consumers: if it feels slick and looks slick, people will use it
  • Chiltern trial: compelling reason (get out of queue) got people who had never downloaded an app before to use mobile ticketing
    • advertise at the pain point — “while you’re queuing, try this”
  • Q: How have TfL responded? A: They’ve already put their investment into NFC
  • Big rail & bus operators like the soft roll-out of mobile barcodes rather than ITSO…
    • “there’s space for both”
  • IATA have legislated that all major airports must implement barcode tickets by May next year
  • In Germany, if you turn up with a mobile ticket and your battery runs out, you’re fined!

Corebridge with Wings

Simon Taylor

  • VPN via small app on phone
    • iPhone, Blackberry, WinMo & Symbian
  • If phone rings, CRM app launches on laptop
  • Similarly, click a phone number on screen and phone makes call straight away
  • App logs phone calls made from mobile back onto corporate server
  • Can send SMS messages from Lotus Notes & Outlook, but this system uses your actual mobile phone to send — so responses come to you, not the SMS gateway
  • Also provides enterprise-wide voice mail

spoonfed

Alex Will

  • 21st Century version of Timeout
  • high quality local event content
  • 30,000 events per month
  • iPhone app — Event Radar
  • LBS mobile Java app launching in Q3 2009
    • complete with maps…
    • looking at options for map source
  • have small editorial team of 5 editors to cover the whole of London
  • has some social features — meet up with your friends, etc.
  • “user generated content is great for cats on skateboards”

Samsung

  • Samsung Mobile Innovator
    • includes lab.dev testing (using Digia remote devices), market.dev pitching
    • core partners are invite only but still free
  • Staines office focusses on supporting Symbian
    • ramping up skills to support Symbian Foundation
  • Samsung IQ widget competition:
    • opens on 24th June
    • £15,000 top prize, 2nd & 3rd prizes too
    • download the i8910 HD DevPack
    • submit entry at http://www.samsungiq.com
    • widget marketplace (More Widgets) is free to user

Vopium

Tanvin Sharif http://vopium.com/

  • based in Denmark
  • free calls on your mobile via VoIP, or else local call then VoIP then local call
  • free to download app — runs in the background transparently
  • first 100 SMS are free then charged after that
  • available from all channels
  • can do free mobile termination for Skype!
  • merge address books and identify with phone number
  • cf. Fring, Nimbuzz — they’re aggregators and run within a separate app
    • main competitor is TruPhone — seamless integration into phonebook
  • tells you if totally wifi or involves a local call
    • doesn’t tell you if one or two local call
  • remote leg: Vopium pay 1p, charge 2p

peepr.tv

Mun Kong, d2see http://peepr.tv

  • stream live from any webcam — pick up on http://peepr.mobi
  • can send an SMS when you detect motion
  • launches native media player on phone
  • showcase of technologies
  • cf. Qik: phone to PC, this is PC to phone, with no app needed on phone
  • can make feeds private, but not password protected

0870.me

  • mobile access to alternative to 0870 numbers
  • iPhone app got rejected — “circumventing carrier policies”
  • Android app intercepts standard dialler
  • with 5 minutes call length, estimated savings of £54K
  • 0870.me — open API for anyone to access, or even download the whole database
  • API integrates with 0800buster.co.uk

OverTheAir — September 25/26th

Keep the date free!

Thanks to the organisers!

Monday, 13 October 2008

MomoLondon: NFC

This was a great Mobile Monday — interesting presentations followed by a captivating panel discussion, and even better mingling over drinks! I arrived late, caught the end of the first presentation and only started blogging by the second one. Nevertheless, NFC really gets people’s juices going! Shame we’ve been stuck in the trial phase for four years…

Claire Maslen — Head of NFC, O2 Telefonica

Claire gave a good overview of the O2 NFC Trial, as reported in the Evening Standard by the headline “9 out of 10 people would like an Oyster phone!”

  • 500 O2 customers with a Nokia 6131 NFC for 6 months
    • Oyster
    • Barclaycard Visa
    • Access control at the O2
    • One use case of smart posters
  • O2 owned the customer data
  • “Agency said at the end that this was the most compelling evidence they had seen for rolling out a new technology”

Oyster integration

  • Worked with Transys and TfL for the Oyster card implementation
  • 87% said that Oyster in their phone would drive their decision to buy a mobile phone — interesting to mobile operators

Barclaycard Paywave

  • less people than Oyster said they were interested, but then Paywave is not common usage yet
  • more efficient for retailers than cash but only 47% said they’d be interested in going further

Other results

  • Were people happy to leave their homes with just their phone?
  • Customers initially complained that 6131 was too low-end, but realised that applications were what was useful (perhaps they felt that Series 40 is a better interface than Series 60?)
    • However, it’s not one size fits all
  • People were happy with using stored value without a PIN

How can we add more value?

  • put a loyalty card in it
  • do more smart posters — didn’t have enough to really try it out
    • only use case was touching a Tutankhamun poster
    • got a mobile internet page about the exhibition with a link to the TfL mobile site

Panel discussion, led by Dan Appelquist

  • John Hill, MD, IBridge — involved with Oyster since original design
  • James Anderson, Mastercard Worldwide — product development in mobile centre of excellence
  • Steve Griffiths, MD, iconmobile — built Visa wallet
  • Victoria Richardson, Head of Marketing, Proxama
  • Claire Maslen, Head of NFC, O2 Telefonica

Where are the contactless readers?

  • CM: Visa will be rolling out 25,000 in London before Christmas
  • JA: Mastercard recently announced 37m devices (mainly cards), 100K+ locations
    • Currently ahead of the pace of chip&pin
    • The pace of innovation always takes longer than people expect…

What about security? Esp. MiFare vulnerability

  • JH: nothing is 100% safe, but it will be a relatively safe environment
  • JA: group at Mastercard called “payment systems integrity” — this is not one of the issues that’s keeping them awake at night
    • There’s lots of systems behind the scenes that keep the system effective
    • There’s a trust element with smart posters — who are you trusting?

What about the long tail of third parties?

  • VR: some excellent examples of NFC in enterprise for building security — using the phone as the reader and wristbands/tags as ID
  • SG: area we’re focussing on is the experience beyond the touch — I’ve just made a payment, what can do with that opportunity
    • discovery — suddenly made much more straightforward
    • attach a fitness service to a health product — e.g. touch a product in a supermarket
    • opportunity in combining transaction data with mobile — but do we trust the operator to look after that properly
  • JA: what’s immediately around us is disproportionately interesting than stuff on the other side of the street — there’s a big opportunity in the intersection of mobile internet content and specific locations
    • e.g in NYC at South Street Sea Port there’s a great big poster with the history, but it talks about something going to happen in 2005… There were loads of restaurants etc around but a great big poster couldn’t tell me about them

What’s the rollout going to look like and what are the blockers?

  • CM: O2 Wallet — consumer; NFC — tech
    • very active in NFC area in the enterprise
    • still no idea when they’re going to launch a commercial service

What about the developing world?

  • Vodafone Paysa? system in Afghanistan & Kenya
  • JA: Paypass has a 20 country roll-out strategy in developed nations
    • Paypass on mobile will follow that…
    • May be opportunities when you make a mobile into a micro-POS, but not primary focus

Deutsche Bahn are rolling out active phone for travel…

  • JA: NFC is flexible — can plug in either as active mobile terminal and passive tag, or active reader and passive card. Consumer experience is good in both cases.

Simon Cavell Mi-Pay: Transport or Retail only markets big enough — how would you sell to Tesco?

  • JA: time saved, seconds per transaction, etc.
  • VR: transportation systems across the UK have very clear mandates to release across the UK
  • CM: 11m contactless cards outside of London in UK
  • JH: not quite a mandate to release
    • almost all of contactless cards are being used as flash passes as there aren’t readers on the buses…
    • transport operators driven by cost reduction

Simon Rockman: my parents’ fireworks shop currently pays 1.75% on credit card transactions. What would retailers be charged for O2 Wallet?

  • CM: we’re not after the transaction revenue
    • O2 would get extra money on initial purchase of device (device would be more expensive)
    • when NFC goes onto the SIM, the manufacturer cost goes down — device just needs an aerial
    • O2 would have to buy bigger SIMs — that’s just what they do as an operator
  • SM: major block is receipt — it takes too long to produce
  • JA: consumers do want to spend large amounts on their phones
    • right now under our rules, it’s for low value transactions
    • but it’s in the roadmap to go for larger values

When will the handsets appear?

  • CM: will not launch without a choice of handsets (three or four)
    • we are talking to all tier one manufacturers
    • analysts are talking up 2012…
    • Olympic year will put pressure on people to innovate

What about switching handsets or operators? How do you handle switching transport operator credit, credit card contracts, etc.?

  • CM: hugely complex
    • O2 Wallet is all about giving everyone their brand presence
    • Applications on the SIM — can kill remotely
    • O2 has asked all operators (UK MNO Taskforce) to get around table to discuss portability
  • JH: for Barclaycard OnePulse, spent 5% of time talking about technology, 95% talking about moving to and from Oyster
    • there’s a customer management issue that no one has dealt with — what happens when someone loses their phone with six applications on it?
  • CM: first person that people phone is their operator

Who will pay?

  • CM: know that B2C will erode over time, therefore are focussing on building B2B business model
    • Banks, etc like the fact that they can deliver more information to the consumer
  • JA: try to think “what’s the next move that my organisation can take?”
  • SG: there will be a huge amount of rich data available from the intersection of transport, wallet & other transactions
    • the question will be how to monetise it?

Is there an equivalent for the iPhone App Store for NFC Apps? Is there space for the lone developer?

  • VR: Definitely space around smart posters
  • JA: don’t quite see the analogy — service discovery will take place in physical world, not electronic

Why do we need this perfect information? The information currently available is ignored by agencies etc…

  • SG: operators have now decided that they’re sitting on goldmines of customer data
    • what we really need is filters, so that data is relevant at the time
    • if I tap on a poster, I get take to different data than you do
    • with all that data, can actually deliver advertising that doesn’t feel like it — actually a useful service
  • Neil Garner, Proxama: Add a twist — rate what you get
    • then start to build up user generated content

What advantage is there over an Oyster card stuck to your phone?

  • VR: scalability — can have multiple cards in your the phone
    • have someone to manage your wallet
    • get marketing ability — receive WAP Push events
  • JH: a simple common app is top up — over the air
    • especially if you live in South London where there are less terminals
    • also benefits TfL — they need less infrastructure

Next event on October 29th — opening registrations tomorrow

November will be a little bit different — even more fun and a little more zany than usual

December: Mobile Social Networking

January: no topic decided yet…